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Monthly Archives: May 2015

Jake Adam York named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The Washington Post says of Abide, “The exquisite writing in this posthumous collection subtly upends readers’ experience of time and reality. . . . This is a lovely, haunting book about the power of remembrance from a poet who left us too soon.”

Tarfia Faizullah wins GCLA New Writers Award

The Great Lakes Colleges Association awarded Seam by Tarfia Faizullah the GCLA New Writers Award. The judges said “Tarfia Faizullah’s Seam shimmers with exigent discovery.”

Gary Phillip Zola named a finalist for National Jewish Book Award

The Jewish Book Council selected We Called Him Rabbi Abraham: Lincoln and American Jewry, a Documentary History a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in two categories: history and scholarship. Carol Poll of the Jewish Book Council says, “This book is fascinating. It paints an intriguing picture of President Lincoln and Jewish life in the mid-nineteenth century.”

“This book follows the trail of the 1925 tornado in southern Illinois and uses interviews, newspaper accounts, and some secondary sources. It is very readable and full of moving anecdotal stories. Partlow does a serviceable job placing this Old-Testament-like natural disaster in the context of southern Illinois’s history of vice (bootlegging, labor unrest, et cetera), and it was a nice surprise to see time spent on the aftermath of the story, with discussions of meteorology and technology.”

“This beautiful, treasure-filled book is a celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It not only showcases the famed collection of Lincoln artifacts the library has acquired over the years but also reveals the documents, maps, photographs, and significant effects that tell the larger Illinois story. Although nothing beats a tour of this world-class library, this book will certainly whet your appetite for the treasures that await you in Springfield.”

Knock at the Door of Opportunity: Black Migration to Chicago, 1900-1919, by Christopher Robert Reed

Award: Superior Achievement

“A well-written book discussing the transition years of black Chicago, from the old settlers to the start of the Great Migration. A must-read for any researcher of this era, emphasizing agency, fluidity, and responsiveness in African-American housing, politics, business, religion, and protest in Chicago. The book covers a very significant but underreported part of Illinois history.”

“A short, concise summary of Lincoln’s religious background and beliefs. The author argues convincingly that Lincoln’s religion was an evolving belief with antecedents in the frontier Baptist world. Like the Gettysburg Address, this book will be known for its brevity and succinctness, yet also for its quality. This book is a most rewarding effort for the scholar, buff, dabbler, layperson, and student, offering fresh perspectives on the diversity of American society, civil religion, and Lincoln’s religion in the pre-White-House years.”

Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman, by Joseph R. Fornieri

Award: Superior Achievement

“Fornieri contends that Lincoln was a ‘Philosopher Statesman’ in whom political thought and action were united. His purpose is to reveal Lincoln’s political genius in terms of the traditional moral vision as defined by philosophical thinkers such Saint Thomas Aquinas. Truly a book from which scholars can learn but that general readers can enjoy.”